


thought it would be over by now

by alistoney



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 2x11 coda, Angst, F/M, late night conversation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22853623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alistoney/pseuds/alistoney
Summary: “Can’t sleep?” Jace asks.It breaks whatever unspoken agreement Clary has with herself over not coming into his room, because she huffs a bitter sort of laugh and joins him on the edge of his bed.“Understatement of the century,” she says.Clary and Jace have a conversation after the events of 2x11
Relationships: Clary Fray/Jace Wayland
Comments: 15
Kudos: 45





	thought it would be over by now

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching clips from 2x11 and watched the Azazel summoning scene where Jace activated a rune without a stele and this idea just kind of wouldn’t leave me alone. 
> 
> So here, have my first attempt at sort of writing clace fic

Jace stares out his window unseeingly. It’s raining and drops of water slide down the windowpane in jagged lines. 

He runs his hand up and down his forearm, rubbing absently over the rune he’d activated earlier. 

Activated without a stele. He doesn’t know what the hell that means. 

It’s late. He knows he should sleep, but he can’t get his brain to shut off. He’d contemplated going to find Alec, maybe crawl into bed with him and let the soothing feel of the other half of his soul calm his racing thoughts. 

But Alec hasn’t been at the Institute at night for a while now and Jace doesn’t want to go check, only to be met with an empty room. 

He shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath.

“Hey.”

Jace startles, dropping his hand to his lap. 

Clary stands in the doorway. 

“Hey,” Jace replies.

Clary doesn’t say anything else, just stands in the doorway looking at him. Jace’s skin prickles under her gaze, he feels too transparent.

“Can’t sleep?” he asks. 

It breaks whatever unspoken agreement Clary has with herself over not coming into his room, because she huffs a bitter sort of laugh and joins him on the edge of his bed. 

“Understatement of the century,” she says. 

She leans closer into his space, looking pointedly at the hand still in his lap. 

“What were you doing?”

Jace leans back onto his hands without looking at her. 

“Nothing.” 

“ _ Jace _ .” 

He huffs and glares at her but all she does is quirk an eyebrow in return.

If it was Alec, or even Izzy, they’d drop it. Clary’s so fucking stubborn. He hates it. 

Except he doesn’t. 

He holds out his arm, the sleeve pushed up to reveal his strength rune. 

“I just—“ 

Clary’s fingers brush the rune and Jace cuts himself off. Her touch is barely there but it still leaves tingles on his skin.

“I know,” she whispers. 

She doesn’t move her hand from his arm when she looks up at him. 

“Clary I—“ he cuts himself off again and shakes his head. He’s usually so good at playing things off with charm and deflection but there’s something about Clary that makes it so hard. 

“I know,” she says again, “I thought this would all be okay after we’d caught Valentine, but everything is still a mess.” 

Jace looks down at his arm and sighs. 

“Do you ever wonder if he really knew what he was doing to us?” 

“Valentine’s a monster,” Clary says vehemently, instead of answering the question.

Jace doesn’t know if he necessarily disagrees. 

“But he’s also smart. And we’re his weapons, Clary,” he pretends not to notice the way she shudders at that, “makes you think about what he wanted to use us for.” 

“We’d never—“ Clary begins, righteous anger bright in her voice. 

It makes Jace smile despite himself. 

“I know,” he allows. 

He knows she’d never. The way she’d been raised, she always seems to know what’s right, always fights with such confidence for what she believes in. 

As if it’s that easy. 

It’s himself he’s worried about. The boy Valentine had raised for ten years. The boy he’d groomed to fight by his side. Jace doesn’t know what Valentine wanted with him, but it couldn’t have been anything good. 

“Have you tried it?” Clary asks, interrupting Jace’s thoughts. 

“What?” 

“Activating the rune again,” she says, “have you tried it?” 

He had, but he stares hard at the rune again anyway. The last time it had been because Clary was there, maybe now that she was asking he could somehow do it again. 

He tenses his muscles and tries to reach for that feeling again. The adrenaline he’d felt when he’d seen her in danger. The way his skin had burned for a split second before the rune activated. 

He watches the rune, feels Clary’s eyes on him too, but he has no luck. 

“Damnit,” he mutters, swiping his palm over the unchanged rune, covering it.

He tries not to let the frustration show, but it’s Clary so it doesn’t exactly work. 

“It’s okay, Jace.” 

He watches her pull out her stele and bring the tip to her palm. The sunlight rune glows gold on her palm but nothing happens. Clary’s shoulder’s slump but she looks over at Jace with a small smile. 

Jace aches to pull her closer, into the space under his chin where she seems to fit perfectly. He hasn’t had her this close in a long time. 

“Maybe it’s for the better,” he says instead.

Clary blinks rapidly a few times and her eyes look slightly damp. Jace swallows. 

“What do you mean?” Clary asks quietly. 

“We aren’t meant to be able to do these things,” Jace mutters, “Valentine made us like this. Maybe it’s better if we can’t do what he planned.”

Clary doesn’t say anything, she just turns so she’s facing Jace fully and seems to study him. 

He holds his breath, watching her gaze flit over his face. 

“You’re right,” she says quietly, resting her hand back onto Jace’s strength rune, “but you’re also very wrong.”

“What—“ 

“You aren’t Valentine, Jace,” she says fervently, a confidence there that Jace doesn’t feel like he deserves, “Maybe we  _ were _ meant to be weapons, or dangerous in a horrible world ending way, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing we can be. It’s about choice.”’

Choice. Jace can’t help but think he’s only been making the wrong choices lately. 

“I know you, Jace,” Clary ducks her head so she can make eye contact with him, “you aren’t a bad person.” 

He wishes he could believe her. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated <3
> 
> Tumblr: [lightwormsiblings](https://lightwormsiblings.tumblr.com)  
> Twitter: [alistoney1](https://mobile.twitter.com/alistoney1)


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